NEW WORLD ORDER
Directed by Luke Meyer & Andrew Neel
Produced by Tom Davis
Released by See Think Films/IFC Films
USA. 83 min. Not Rated  
 

Conspiracy theorists love Ron Paul. Or so I guess, since New World Order features few subjects that don’t at some point display a Paul T-shirt, sign, bumper sticker, or poster. With this film, directors Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel continue the detached-from-reality theme that they kicked off with Darkon three years ago.   
 
Darkon centered on a group of role-playing gamers from Baltimore who enact real-life simulations of computer-game battles. The directors’ new documentary focuses on dissidents who are convinced 9/11 was an inside job and that the world is run by an elusive oligarchy hell-bent on restricting your freedoms. Putting Darkon and New World Order side-by-side, it’s hard to imagine that Meyer and Neel intended to create an unbiased, sympathetic view, which seems to be the word-of-mouth consensus. Both of these films register not as humanistic portrayals, but as opportunistic bits of exploitation that indulge in lazy caricature. 

This approach plagued Terry Zwigoff’s perversely fascinating documentary Crumb (1994), which some argued went disturbingly far in its intrusion upon the dysfunctional family of subversive comic-artist Robert Crumb. But at the end of the day, Crumb was at least enthralling and genuinely affecting, unlike New World Order. The crucial figure here is Alex Jones, the fiery-eyed, over-the-top radio host who “dwells somewhere to the right of Rush and the left of Michael Moore,” as Jim Ridley of The Village Voice so aptly put it. At the start, we hear him ranting repetitively, much like the disillusioned hitchhiker that annoys Jack Nicholson and Karen Black in Five Easy Pieces. (The word “crap” comes up a lot). Later, he’s on the air squealing like a pig, repeating almost verbatim lines from that memorable scene in Deliverance. He also cites Ghostbusters in explaining parts of his theories (yes, I'm serious). 
 
The rest of the film’s subjects are not particularly captivating to watch (and even the novelty of Jones’s antics wears thin after a short while). Maybe the only exception is a young filmmaker from Ireland, who repeatedly tries to invade the Bilderberg Conference, a yearly meeting of worldwide movers and shakers who the film’s subjects believe are responsible for much of the international terrorism. Many of the other interviewees come across as often logorrheic Bible thumpers, who can’t resist bringing scripture into world affairs. Members of the Covenant Community in Idaho openly assert that the world is black and white, divided between good and evil. Jones himself even refers to JFK’s assassination site as an “Eden” for conspiracy theorists.

As I sat watching some of Jones’s followers argue in the street with angry passersby, my first thought was, “They’re not going to change each other’s minds, so it’s kind of pointless.” Then, I realized something more pertinent: “Hey, not only is it pointless. It’s not really that interesting.” Rich Zwelling
May 22, 2009